I got a second set of photos from the top of Animas Mountain.
I didn’t realize landscapes were so hard to photograph.
I wanted to get a shot looking down on a glider or a redtailed hawk… but I couldn’t.
Oh, well.
Archive for the 'Photography' Category
I just wanted to make sure y’all knew that I use Photoshop all the time.
This beautiful shot is from
this badly exposed original. I routinely put trees in front of our neighbor’s roof. I remove fences, electrical lines and buildings… all the time. I use Photoshop to remove weeds.
And I enhance the colors just because I can. This vibrant (alright, lurid) shot
came from this tastefully muted original. I’m making cartoons: I have to use low resolution for the internet, so I increase the contrast and pop the colors, simplify the image and make them into little posters.
I know that some photos represent an existing reality, but mine don’t. I have never posted a photo that wasn’t manipulated, and you can see from these pairs of photos that I’m better with the computer than the camera.
I just wanted to get this off my chest. I will never mention it again.
My dearest readers,
This is my 111th consecutive post, and I realized yesterday that I don’t want to be posting on Sundays anymore. So I hope you will still visit me if I stick to six days a week instead of seven.
And ValleyGirl, you asked about what lens I used to take those bird pictures:
Last November when I decided to start a blog, I tried to get the best camera and lens for wildlife photography. After doing some research, I bought second-hand equipment on Ebay: a Canon EOS 10D camera, and a Canon Zoom lens EF 70-300mm 1:4 - 5.6 IS USM. The Canon EOS 10D increases the effect of the zoom lens, and the lens itself has an image stabilizer so you don’t need a tripod. When you consider my lack of background or experience in photography, it’s obvious that I’m using stellar equipment. Plus I Photoshop everything–I started using Photoshop Elements, which came with my PC, and got the full Photoshop program about six weeks ago. Ah, technology.
I hope you have a lovely Sunday,
Alice
Since I haven’t completed my follow-up post for the treehouse curtains, I need to stall with a “Name the Photo” contest.
The winner of this contest gets a lovely box of Rocky Mountain Chocolates.
The story of this filly can be found here, but the story of the picture can be found in the title… if only I had a title.
Thanks for playing!
(This photo is named Sunset Rock, but the cliffs aren’t.)
Thank you so much for all of your entries. I’ve never had a contest before, so I didn’t realize how difficult it was to choose the best caption.
My first thought was ”Ewe talkin to me?” in honor of Robert De Niro in his prime, because I had that speech down when I was 17 years old. But when I listened to De Niro’s version on YouTube I remembered the profundity of the profanity, and it seemed that Taxi Driver was in a different realm than these little lambs.
See what I mean?
So I’m going with “Generations” by Glenda. When I looked up pictures for “generations” I got these gentlemen:
which go seamlessly with Donny’s lambs.
Glenda, can you let me know your email so I send your prize? Thanks.
And thanks a lot for playing.
Around Easter and Passover, my thoughts turn to lambs and chocolate. So in honor of both I am having a caption contest for this lamb picture,
and the prize is one pound of extremely delicious chocolates from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory which might arrive in time for Easter!
Please send in your best suggestions! This chocolate wants to be won.
I agree with everyone who said the telephoto shots were better than the wide angle landscapes. So I made a few pairs of photographs using each lens at the same site. Here’s where the river enters the valley,
and here’s a photo taken at exactly the same spot 2 1/2 weeks earlier.
I like the close-up better, as usual. Here’s an interesting pair, taken yesterday:
Same spot, same time, different lens. And then I realized: I took the top pictures because I was interested in the color of the water, and I took the bottom pictures because I wanted to show you the rock varnish. See those black streaks? They’re very mysterious. Rock varnish is mostly minerals–clay, manganese oxide and iron oxide–but it’s alive. It’s formed by a colony of bacteria that lives underneath it and glues the windblown particles into place. Streaks of rock varnish can be 10s of thousands of years old. Isn’t that the oldest living organism on earth? Is there anything alive that is older?
And can’t you see that rock varnish more clearly with two lenses than with one?
One take-home assignment from my photography lesson was to get another lens. It took a while, but I found a wide angle lens second-hand and am now completely befuddled. Here’s the original version with the telephoto lens:
Here’s the new lens, a wide angle.
or perhaps this.
Bizarro.
I’m one of those people who never took photographs before I got a camera late November. I’ve been taking pictures nearly every day since then, figuring it out as I go, and a few weeks ago I was ready for a photography lesson. I know a few professional photographers, so I’m hiring each for a little tutoring. I had my first lesson, and have been mulling it over ever since.
1. Don’t leave extraneous information in the photo. In fact, don’t be afraid to get rid of extraneous information before you take that picture. Cut those weeds! move that driftwood! And don’t be afraid to crop the heck out of it. (It’s not journalism, it’s art.)
2. If you take a photo at eye height like everyone else, then it’ll look like everyone else’s photo. Use a ladder or get on the ground. (When I explain that my angles are restricted because of the snowpack, he’s not interested. He works for his photos.)
3. Slightly off-kilter doesn’t work. Get your angles right.
before
after
I thought it was a good lesson.
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